About writing style...?

[etherealkittens.livejournal.com]

I've been shifting through different writing styles for the past four years now, and still haven't found one that really suits me (or stops changing).

So I've been wondering: Is it some sort of "writer's challenge" to find their own writing style? Is it abnormal to not have a good, stable writing style after writing for four years?

Just a little question to try to help solve a few writing-identity problems of mine I've been facing lately ;~;

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I think it happens naturally when you let go and write. :)

[etherealkittens.livejournal.com]

That just may be the problem, though, because that "let go and write" style keeps changing.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Style? Or voice?

I assumed you were talking about voice.

If it is, indeed, style you're talking about, that could change from story to story and genre to genre.

[woodrunner.livejournal.com]

This may not be true of everyone, but what I find varies from book to book (even within the same genre) is the style of writing.

What's more important is that your style stays the same within the same book, and that you have a strong voice in telling the story.

[tracy-d74.livejournal.com]

When you say style what do you mean? I think most writers have a sound. I can pick up a horror book and start reading and get a sense if it is Stephen King. I can pick up a justice/legal book and sense John Grisham on the pages. Jodi Piccoult . . . yeap, I know her rhythm. If that is what you mean by style . . . yes, writers nail one down. They tend to use certain words, describe in a certain way, build stories in a certain way. Most writers say they are influenced by certain authors or experiences in their life. Those influences and experiences travel down their fingers and on to the pages without their awareness. There are changes from story to story, because the story changes, the characters change, the editors change. And when they write in a different genre you will see some changes in that style, but there are features that remain.

I love Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Jane Austen. So my stories tend to have a dark and tender quality to them. I love to cook and I love colors. I am a psychologist, so I hear and understand human struggles in a unique way most do not. So when I write, you will see the influence of those classic writers, my love of colors, food, and knowledge of human struggles. Those things are woven into me and create a tapestries that are undeniable mine regardless of the change in thread color or pattern (genre). Because each time I create a new tapestry, I will use the techniques that are familiar, that I love, that feel natural. Those represent me.

Now if you mean style as the voice a character takes or the nuances of a genre. Well, those things change. How a 16-year-old handles a situation in a book will be different than a 40-year-old-lawyer. Hopefully anyway. And the word choices will change in sophistication . . .hopefully because you have a different character, a different genre.

I don't know how you develop your style. The best answer I have is evaluate what you love about certain writers. Don't steal. But how can you weave those threads into your fabric, your writing. What makes you feel alive in your life and how do get those sensations on paper. Just an opinion--long winded--but just an opinion.

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

Four years is not a long time in writing time. So I wouldn't worry if you haven't fully developed your own style and voice yet. It's not abnormal at all. I think a lot of writers probably work on this closer to a decade before they really, firmly establish their own style.

[xarixian.livejournal.com]

As you write you'll discover which parts you like best about your writing and you'll keep those and change others until you have a writing style you like. Some of this is probably subconcious, the various scratching out of awkward sentences ...
I very much agree with what TracyD was saying about the various influences. Who you are, what you've read will all change how you write.
Developing a writing 'style' is something that happens both naturally and with effort.